In the early 1860s, Richard Gatling of the United States invented a hand-cranked machine gun having multiple rotating barrels that fired sequentially. The gun came to be known as the Gatling gun and was used by the U.S. Army and the armies of many other countries. The hand-cranking feature was later replaced by an electric motor.
One hundred years after the Gatling gun was invented, a six-barreled Gatling-type machine gun was developed by the General Electric Company that could fire 5,000 or more rounds per minute. The new gun came to be known as the M134 Minigun. The Minigun was widely used in by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War and is still in use today. A Minigun G is shown in FIG. 1.
The Minigun fires 7.62 mm rounds (also known as cartridges) that are fed in the form of a belt formed of interconnecting clips and rounds. FIG. 2 shows a round R and two clips C. FIG. 3 shows an ammunition belt made up of three rounds and three clips. Each clip has two coaxial and spaced apart C-shaped leading loops that hold the same round. Each clip also has a third C-shaped trailing loop that is on a different axis and holds a different round. The lateral direction of travel of the ammunition belt is indicated by the large arrow in FIG. 3. The terms “leading” and “trailing” are used herein in reference to this lateral direction of travel.
A feeder delinker is the component of the Minigun that receives the belt, separates (strips) the leading round from the leading clip, separates the clip from the belt, ejects the clip, and feeds the round to the rotary firing chamber of the Minigun. The feeder delinker is mounted underneath the Minigun and is powered by the same power source as the Minigun. The Minigun cannot fire without an operating feeder delinker.
The original feeder delinker for the Minigun separates the round from the clip by pushing the round forward axially with a reciprocating pushrod. The original feeder delinker has a large number of moving parts that require precise alignment. As a result, the original feeder delinker is prone to breakage and malfunction, especially under adverse conditions. Repairs to the original feeder delinker are often time consuming because the unit must be substantially disassembled.
Improvements to the original Minigun feeder delinker are disclosed in Dillon, U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,044, Sep. 3, 2002; Garwood, U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,515, Jul. 5, 2011; and Garwood, U.S. Pat. No. 8,006,603, Aug. 30, 2011. The Dillon feeder delinker contains two access doors that reduce repair time. The Garwood feeder linker contains a single access door with a plunger. Like the original feeder delinker, the Dillon and Garwood feeder delinkers contain reciprocating pushrods to separate a round from the clip.
Henshaw et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,506, Aug. 1, 1967, disclose a Minigun feeder delinker that separates a round from the clip from the side (laterally) rather than pushing it forward (axially). The Henshaw et al. side stripping feeder delinker restrains the round on two flanges of a freely rotatable spool while a tooth of a rotating sprocket pushes the link off the round. The Henshaw et al. feeder delinker requires precise alignment and is prone to malfunction. More particularly, the two flanges must contact the round outwardly of the two C-shaped forward loops of the clip. If the round is slightly forward or slightly rearward, the flanges do not make the required contact and the feeder delinker malfunctions.
Accordingly, there is a demand for an improved feeder delinker that has fewer moving parts, is more reliable (less prone to malfunction), is more durable (less prone to breakage), and is less expensive to manufacture.